Particularly dark night of soaps leads Thursday’s TV viewing
BBC One’s mixture of sun, sea and sand-coated crime scenes once again saw Death in Paradise win over Thursday’s 9pm audience.
The latest slice of tropical undemanding crime solving saw bumbling British cop DI Goodman (Kris Marshall) deal with yet another glamorous case of murder as a young model met her end on the catwalk.
An audience of 6.1 million viewers tuned in to see former EastEnders actor Paul Nicholls take the mantle of ex-soap guest star, resulting in a 28% share for the broadcaster’s flagship channel.
At the same time on commercial broadcaster ITV was the third episode of ye olde Yorkshire ‘western’, Jericho (9pm), which saw the makeshift rail road town deal with a biblical outbreak of the plague.
Despite people dropping like flies among the insanitary conditions, strong, ahead-of-her-time, independent woman TM Annie (Call the Midwife‘s Jessica Raine) still found time to make glad eyes with the town’s token broody man candy, Johnny (Hans Matheson), despite the fact her own daughter was busy being consumed with consumption.
Opening up with a little under 3 million viewers, last week’s instalment of grim Northern period drama fell to 2.8 million viewers with yesterday’s episode continuing the downward trend.
An audience of 2.5 million watched as the roads out of Jericho were blocked (because – plotting) leading to a desperate situation for the sick, resulting in an 11% share for ITV.
Over on Channel 4, The Restoration Man (9pm) George Clarke was investigating a tricky Georgian gazebo tower in Pembroke, with those pesky planning laws adding to the drama and helping bring in 1.4 million viewers and a 6% share.
This year’s especially soul-draining series of Celebrity Big Brother continued over on Channel 5, with 2.3 million viewers and a 10% share tuning in for their daily dose of mental illness-based entertainment.
Raining the 9pm bar ever so slightly was BBC Two’s The Story of China with presenter Michael Wood jumping enthusiastically head first into the country’s expansive history.
The first of six episodes delved into the superpower’s mythical past and secured 1.5 million viewers and a 7% share.
Earlier, Dickensian scored 2.4 million viewers and an 11% share at 8pm on BBC One, followed by Room 101 at 8:30pm which was watched by 2.6 million viewers and a 12% share.
On ITV, the 12th series of Birds of a Feather (8:30pm) continued to pull in a strong audience, with 4.3 million viewers tuning in to see Tracey spending more time on her love life than with her grieving son, resulting in a 20% share.
Thursday brought another battle between Emmerdale and EastEnders, although this time the rural soap avoided a direct clash by airing two separate episodes.[advert position=”left”]
Kicking things off at 7pm was Emmerdale (ITV), which made its London rival feel positively feel-good in comparison as increasingly troubled Aaron Livesy shared some disturbing secrets about his past.
An audience of 6.2 million (a 31% share) tuned in to hear the shocking revelations at 7pm, falling to 5.9 million viewers (a 28% share) for the return visit at 8pm.
In fairness, it was hardly a laugh-a-minute visit to Walford either (BBC One, 7:30pm) as Stacey Branning’s psychosis stepped it up a gear, denouncing possible baby daddy Martin Fowler as the devil himself.
The biggest audience of the day tuned in for the latest developments in EastEnders, resulting in 6.6 million viewers and a 32% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations. Overnight data supplied by TRP are based on 15 minute slot averages. This may differ from tape checked figures, which are based on a programme’s actual start and end time.
To get all the latest Mediatel Newsline updates follow us on Twitter.